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Bath's Lizzy Yarnold to be Winter Olympics flag bearer

Bath-based Olympic champion Lizzy Yarnold is to lead Team GB into Friday night’s Opening Ceremony of the PyeongChang 2018 Olympic Winter Games after being selected as Flag bearer.

The 29-year-old, was chosen as Flag bearer for the Closing Ceremony four years ago at Sochi 2014 after winning gold in the women's skeleton.

Her winning margin of 0.97 seconds in Sochi was the largest in Olympic history as Yarnold registered two track records and the fastest down time in each of the four runs.

Yarnold - a former heptathlete - has been selected as one of Team GB's two women skeleton drivers for the South Korean games. Next Friday, 16 February, she will be the first woman to attempt to defend an Olympic gold in the sport and is also attempting to be the first British woman to defend a Winter Olympic title.

Competing in the 2017 World Championships in Austria. Credit: PA

My first reaction when I was asked to be Flagbearer was complete excitement and I’m really proud to march in front of the whole team. There are so many talented athletes competing here for Team GB at this Olympic Games and hopefully this can be the start of our most successful ever Winter Olympics.

Being Flag bearer at Sochi felt like a real celebration whereas this time around it’s a completely different responsibility. This could be the start of something really special and I hope the other athletes aren’t too far behind me as we’re very much one team going into these Games.

– Lizzy Yarnold

Lizzy proudly displaying the gold medal she won at Sochi in 2014 Credit: PA